Since the water resource is increasing scarce in the world, it is one of the important problems concerned by the scientists and engineers engaged in the research on the environmental sanitation all over the world to utilize the water resource efficiently and to improve various water consumption apparatuses.
A toilet flushing apparatus is widely used in families, hotels or other various human activities places. Since it is used a lot, the problem that whether the flushing mechanism can save water is particularly important. The Chinese Ministry of Construction has demanded that the water consumption for each flushing cycle shall be lower than 6 liters, which would be a challenge undoubtedly for the researchers dedicated in the art of bathroom apparatus.
It is well-known that the greater the stored energy of the flushing water, the better the flushing effect would be, and therefore that a lesser amount of water is needed for achieving the same flushing effect. Therefore, it is an efficient measure to improve the stored energy of the flushing water for saving the water consumption.
Compared with the technical solution of improving the flushing effect of the toilet flushing apparatus by the method of utilizing compressed air to store the energy, the technical solution of utilizing a spring to load the stored energy has many advantages. Taking the flushing mechanism of the toilet as an example, since the stored energy element is a spring not air, when the spring is compressed by the pre-compression force, the efficiency of spring energy storage is much greater than that of air compressing energy storage, and thus the problems that exist in the process for storing energy by compressing air can be avoided by spring energy storage, such as: (1) at the beginning of drainage, high pressure, fast flow, great impact to the toilet bowl and big noise shall appear, but at the end of drainage, when a stable water supply is needed, the pressure of the water will rapidly declined with less impulsive force, and the pressure of water supply must be further increased if the user wants to achieve the expected impact; (2) if the housing is caused to be fatigued and aged by repeated compression-recovery, or is broken or damaged by accidental crush, the air and debris thereof shall be distributed around when blasting or releasing the high pressure air, and their directions can not be controlled, such that it possesses the defects like security risks. Therefore, people tend to develop and exploit the flushing apparatus with spring energy storage.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,311 (hereafter referred to the reference 1, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference) discloses a flushing mechanism with low water consumption, which comprises a plastic housing, a cistern and hydraulic actuation system, wherein the cistern is provided with a piston, the piston is biased in the cistern by a mechanical compression piston spring. When the flushing valve is closed and the water is filled in the cistern to be stand-by, the piston is pressured by the water (equivalent to the water pressure in conduit) to overcome the downward elasticity of the spring to move upwards; when the piston is stopped moving, the upward water pressure applied on the piston is equal to the pressure of the loaded spring. A flushing valve is fixed to the bottom of the containment vessel that has a central opening. The flushing valve stretches along the central portion of the containment vessel, wherein a first end portion of the valve rod is connected to the flushing valve, and a second end of the valve rod is connected to the flushing valve plate. A flushing valve spring is fixed on the flushing valve plate that is biased to the stand-by position by the effect of the flushing valve spring. When flushing, the flushing button is actuated, and then the water in the conduit flows into the gap of the actuating room by the head, so as to pressurize the actuating room until the supply water pressure which functions to the flushing valve to generate the force applied to the spring of the flushing valve and pushes the flushing valve rod upwards to cause the flushing valve leaving from the flushing valve body to open the discharge outlet. A scroll diaphragm is further disposed in the flushing mechanism, which is for preventing the water in the containment vessel from flowing out of the first piston and preventing the water from contacting with the first piston spring.
As recited above, the flushing mechanism of this reference adapts a plastic housing, and the aging of itself and the accidental crushing and dropping during the use shall lead to the housing breaking to release the energy of the spring, but such instantaneous energy releasing is much greater, which shall generate harm to the facility around and even endanger the life security of the people around. Furthermore, although the effect of sealing by the scroll diaphragm is good, the diaphragm is liable to be broken by the pressure and the repeated turnover, such that the use life of the flushing mechanism will be influenced directly. Additionally, it is not easy for the hydraulic actuating system to be maintained because of the complicated structure.
WO 02/46540 (hereafter referred to the reference 2, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference) discloses a device for discharging liquid volume, which comprises a housing with inlet and outlet, a spring loading piston, an inlet valve and an outlet valve. The outlet valve is in a form of spring loading double-head sealing piston, and the spring loading double-head sealing piston comprises a sealing surface disposed at one end for closing the outlet and an actuating surface disposed the other end oppositely. The actuating surface is defined to be actuated by the water with a certain pressure in the actuating room of the housing. The inlet valve is in a form of electromagnetic switches.
The electromagnetic switch is adapted in the device, and thus, a power supply is needed in the place where the device is mounted in a complex structure. Although the reference 2 fails to disclose the material of the housing, if the metal housing is adapted, the cost and weight of the device shall be increased, and if the plastic housing is adapted, the housing shall possess the same problems of breaking of the housing caused by the aging or the accidental crushing and dropping during the use and mounting, which shall generate harm to the facility around and even endanger the life of the people around.
The above applications are taken as the reference documents for the present application, the entire disclosures thereof shall be incorporated in the present application.
In the other aspect, as standard of living is improved, the people pays more and more attention to the personalized decoration of the bedroom or hotel, such that it is one of direction for the researchers to make great effects to endow the designation of the bathroom apparatus with a greater flexibility.